Thursday, December 18, 2014

"Elisabeth"

Did the Bright Man blaze with starshine or corpsefire? Did glory or terror shut my Zechariah's mouth? Can this haunt-eyed haint be the man with whom I grew well-stricken in years? After all those years, why does my monthly blood flow again?

So many questions. Yet in the night as our bodies cleave and his silent mouth meets mine, they fall away. My barren belly has swollen, and I have my answer. It is a sweet sword that heals even as it pierces.

And beholding my young cousin, her virgin stomach rounding, I know it will pierce more than me.




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6 comments:

Loren Eaton said...

Marginal Notes

"Elisabeth" is based on Luke 1:5-25, which tells of the angel Gabriel prophesying John the Baptist's birth to his father Zechariah.

It is a sweet sword ... See Luke 2:22-38, esp. 2:33-35.

And beholding my young cousin ... See Luke 1:26-38.

Loren Eaton said...

Post Script: Yes, these aren't technically "marginal" since a blog has no margins. But I'm silly and like the sound of it. So there's that.

Derek Manuel said...

Very atmospheric, Loren. Very disturbing. Good work.

Loren Eaton said...

Thank you, Derek!

Elizabeth Gaucher said...

I like this one a lot. I'm a fan of reconsidering the rawness under some of the tales we glide over as so simple and pretty. You do a good job of digging into the female physicality.

Loren Eaton said...

Thanks, Elizabeth. I was really aiming for that. Imagine being an eighty-year-old woman who miraculously ends up pregnant. Think of the joy and the terror. You'd know that something preternatural was afoot.